ABSTRACT

Nowadays, consumer behavior is influenced not only by consumer personalities and motivations, but also by the relationships within families. Family is a social group and it can be considered the cornerstone of consumers so it has a crucial place in the perception of marketing. Marketeers closely interested in this issue to know the family which changed and renewed in course of time. It provides a tremendous advantage for a marketeer to know the family structure and its consumption characteristics (Durmaz and Zengin, 2011: 53).

In this study, the effect of cultural factors on consumer buying behaviour is investigated. A survey was conducted on 1400 people from the different parts of Logos Ikeja.

The information acquired from the results are analyzed and interpreted by the computer packet programs. Ikeja has six regions. From each region two provinces are selected by random sampling method. A face to face survey was conducted on 100 people from each province and in total 1200 people participated in the survey. The information obtained from the results are analyzed and interpreted by the computer packet programs.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0INTRODUCTION

The customer is the sole reason organizations exists (Cochran, 2006: 1). In the modern world customer becomes much more important for the firms. The markets become bigger and bigger with the firms selling the same products and the competition among them becomes inevitable. For this reason the study of consumer behaviour takes a great place.

The marketers try to understand the needs of different consumers and having understood his different behaviours which require an in-depth study of their internal and external environment, they formulate their plans for marketing (Khan, 2007: 1). How do people buy and use goods and services? How do they react to prices, advertising and store interiors? What underlying mechanisms operate to produce these responses? If marketers have answers to such questions, they can make better managerial decisions. If regulators have answers, they can form better policy. It is the role of consumer behaviour research to provide these answers (East, Wright and Vanhuele, 2008: 4). In this study the impact of cultural factors on consumer buying behaviour is studied.

Consumer is a person who desires, needs and requires marketing components in their capacity as buyer1.Typically marketers are defined to have the ability to control the behaviors of customers, but actually they have neither power nor information for that.. Marketer may influence their buying behavior but not control (Durmaz, Çelik and Oruç, 2011: 109).

Consumer behaviour deals with many other issues. For instance (Pariest, Carter and Statt, 2013: 19):

• How do we get information about products?

• How do we assess alternative products?

• Why do different people choose or use different products?

• How do we decide on value for money?

• How much risk do we take with what products?

• Who influences our buying decisions and our use of the product?

• How are brand loyalties formed, and changed?

Consumer behaviour might be the following: 

The mental, emotional and physical activities that people engage in when selecting, purchasing, using and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy needs and desires (Wilkie, 1994, Pariest, Carter and Statt, 2013: 19)

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Markets are subject to many influences. It is possible to identify those influences but difficult to understand the specific nature and importance of these influences unless research efforts are made to understand them. Impulsive consumer buying behaviours is a widely recognized phenomenon in marketing and several factors has been associated in the literature with this behaviour among consumers. Interestingly, majority of these studies were carried out in western and developed economies, but there seems to be poor evidence of such studies in Africa or have not been properly documented. In Nigeria with diverse culture, there seems to be paucity of studies that examined the effect of culture on consumers’ impulsive buying behaviour. 

Researchers and Practitioners have been interested in the field of buying behavior for the past sixty years (Clover,1950; Stern,1962; Rook, 1987; Peck & Childers, 2006; Chang, Eckman & Yan, 2011). Impulse buying behaviour is described as a ‘’sudden, compelling, hedonically complex purchasing behaviour in which the rapidity of the impulse purchase decision process precludes thoughtful, deliberate consideration of all information and choice alternatives’’. This above description is largely based on interviews and surveys of westerners or Europeans in the works of Bayley and Nan-corrow, 1996; Rock, 1987; Weinbery and Gottwald, 1982).

kacen and lee, (2002), demonstrated the growing interest in cultural differences in consumer behaviour and highlighted the importance of understanding the cultural context of consumer behaviour in an increasingly globalise market place. While studies in American and Western societies expand the frontiers of this understanding, little is known about the influence of culture on buying behaviour in societies like Nigeria. 

In Nigeria today, we have not less than 250 ethnic groups and each group has a measure of cultural differences, which distinguish them from every other group. Their mode and method of behaviour varies from one ethnic group to the other and the mode of buying varies from one local market to the other. It is possible that different cultures of these many ethnic groups in Nigeria influence the buying decision of many consumers.

1.2STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Previous researches conducted in the United States and Great Britain has shown that many factors influence impulsive buying behaviours; the consumers’ mood or emotional state. Donovan-Rossiter, Marcoolyn, and Nesdale, (1994) on trait buying impulsiveness, Puri, (1996), Rook and Fisher, (1995) worked on normative evaluation of the appropriateness of engaging in impulse buying,  self identity and demographic factors such as age, sex (Wood, 1998). Interestingly, all these factors that have been linked to impulse purchasing are also likely to be influenced by culture. The intention of this work is to evaluate the moderating effects of culture on this buying behaviour in Nigeria.

1.3OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main and focal point of this research work is on the survey of culture and its effects on the buying behavior of consumers in Nigeria. Others objectives are.

1.To understand the cultural content of consumer behaviour in an increasingly globalise marketplace

2.To learn the factors which determine consumers’ purchases in Nigeria

3.To establish, if, consumers in Nigeria experience instantaneous, overpowering and persistent desire to buy certain products.

4.To identify the moderating role of culture during these periods

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

Few questions are constructed, which on answering will effectively evaluate the effects of culture on buying behavior of consumers. Questions are.

1.What is the cultural content of your behavior in this increasingly globalize marketplace?